Name: French Lentil Salad with Mustard Dressing
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Yield: 4 servings
Cuisine: French
Ingredients: 300 g whole red lentils; 3 tablespoons cold-pressed yellow mustard oil; 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard; 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar; 2 shallots, very finely diced; 1 carrot, whole, for the pot; 1 leaf and 2 sprigs bay leaf and thyme; a handful flat-leaf parsley, chopped; to taste salt and black pepper

Before you cook

Dress lentils while they are warm. Cold lentils repel a vinaigrette and you end up with dressing pooled at the bottom of the bowl.

Salt only after they are tender. Salted cooking water firms the skins and leaves the centres stubbornly chalky.

Method

Rinse the lentils and put them in a pan with cold unsalted water.
Add the whole carrot, bay and thyme to perfume the pot as it cooks.
Bring to a boil, then simmer gently for twenty-five minutes until just tender.
Test several lentils, because a pot cooks unevenly and averages mislead you.
Whisk the mustard and vinegar together before adding any of the oil.
Add the mustard oil slowly, whisking until the dressing thickens and holds.
Drain the lentils and discard the carrot, bay leaf and thyme stalks.
Tip the hot lentils straight into the dressing with the diced shallots.
Toss and leave for ten minutes so the warm lentils absorb the vinaigrette.
Fold the parsley through, season generously, and serve warm or at room temperature.

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